Pre-Columbian North America
Ancient America• Kennewick Man found in 1996• 40 years old, 5’9” tall, dead for 9,400 years
Historical Sources for Ancient America• Petroglyphs = paintings on
rocks• Pictographs = drawings on
rocks
Clovis Points
Pictograph
Pangea• Split into 7 continents nearly 240 million years
ago
Homo erectus Homo sapiens
Migration Across Bering Strait• 13,000 BCE = Paleo-Indians crossed Bering
Strait from Siberia into North America
A Turning Point• 11,000 BCE = Paleo-Indian Hunters become
Archaic-Indian Hunter-Gatherers
Agricultural Revolution• 5,000 BCE = farming
developed in Mesoamerica
• Mesoamerica = Corn (Maize)• Caribbean = Manioc• Andes = Potato• Squash, beans,
peppers, sunflowers
Manioc sold at market
The Anasazi• Built “pueblo” apartments in the Southwest• Existed during the 1st century CE
Mississippian Mound Builders• 800 – 1500 CE• Cahokia is near St. Louis, MO
Iroquois Confederacy/5 Nations Confederacy• Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga,
Seneca• Lived in Longhouses• Matrilineal
Demographics
• At 1492 = 50 million people in North America, Mesoamerica, & South America
• Estimates vary = 1/5 along Pacific Coast, ¼ in Southwest, 1/3 East of Mississippi River, ¼ in Great Plains, Great Basin & Arctic
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